His Words

Today's preach by Pastor christie was full of messages that embarked everyone's heart. It was main pointed to the verses from 1 Kings 17:1-16. At times, we feel the emptiness in one of the aspects of our life and we react on it in different ways. The overall idea was "Where God leads you, He will provide for you". Indeed, let Him lead us into His ways and we should be assured that everything that we need will be dispensed by Him. In 1 Kings 17:6 (The ravens brought him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he drank from the brook), it showed here that in our life, we may feel full of blessings, full of wonderful things that surround us, everything is perfect, everything is in a smooth flow.

Since we are comfortable in such kind of situation, He may give us some challenges, He can dry up the supply and pull us out from the comfort zone. Then in 1 Kings 17:7 (But after a while the brook dried up, for there was no rainfall anywhere in the land), Elijah's supply was cut out and the Lord tried to challenge Him and asked him to follow His commands. Sometimes we feel that after a sustainable status, He will just get it out from us. We shouldn't take such instances as a punishment, instead, we should be thankful as these obstacles will make us stronger and be assured that better things are coming and just trust His plans.

The Lord then instructed to Elijah in 1 Kings 17:8-11 (8 Then the Lord said to Elijah, 9 “Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed you.” 10 So he went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the gates of the village, he saw a widow gathering sticks, and he asked her, “Would you please bring me a little water in a cup?” 11 As she was going to get it, he called to her, “Bring me a bite of bread, too.”), indeed He gave a supply to Elijah. We are reminded that we just need to follow His every words as He is the Great Provider, His love to us unlimited, limitless and no boundaries.

As long as we believe Him, we trust Him and commit everything to Him, we are in the right path and nothing can go wrong. In 1 Kings 17:14 (For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again!”), there will always be supply of blessings from Him. This main message was also mentioned in Philippians 4:19 (And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus), He will give ALL of our needs. For every challenges that we face, we should stand up and be reminded that He is bigger than those problems. If we feel empty, only He can fill us up, surrender everything to Him, believe in Him.

Sunday service last 6th of March was very inspiring and very applicable to me during that time. For the past few weeks, I am under a lot of stress. Doing two separate roles in work isn't an easy task but sometimes you have to do it as it is your job. It is not about complaining but sometimes you will feel unease to those right and left work. Pastor Jeff gave a moving preach and I claimed that it was for me. The whole service revolved from the verse of 1 Kings 19:1-18. He gave three major points on how to handle stress so that we can comply on it according to His ways.

1. Watch out for dangerous signs (1 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, "May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severly, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them. 3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day's journey into the desrt. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough Lord," he said. "take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.". / 9 there he went into a cave and spen t the night. And the word of the Lord came to him: "What are you doing here, elijah?" 10 He replied, "I have been very zealous for the lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too".) - We should always be remided to recognize the signs so that we know how to handle such situation. a) Irrational Fear - sometimes you will wake up 3AM in the morning and you will feel such a fear that you don't understand or those moments that after leaving the office there are some frustrations or questions like what if? how if? or you will be scared of what will come the next day and you will think of it even you were at home. b) Unhealthy Isolation - this is a sign on which we want to be alone and get out of the noise of many people. You'll feel that you need a space that you chose to be by yourself. c) Depressive Thoughts - There's a moment that we want to give up or even wishing to die. We just want to finish it without a resolution or just go away from it, leave out of the country and not facing it. d) Self Pity - These are the moments that you compare yourself to others as a lower class or one who can't do it or that you are useless and deserves nothing.

2. Take care of the physical body (5 Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said "Get up and eat." 6 he looked around and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. 7 The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touhced him and said, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you". 8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.) In order to survive the stress, we are advised to be healthy. a) Eat & Drink Well - When we say eat, we should consider the foods that we are eating whether if it is beneficial or will cause harm to our body system. It is also advisable to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. b) Rest Well - I was advised before that it is good to have an eight hour sleep or that we should sleep before 10PM to ensure that we had a complete rest to prepare for the next day. Ps Jeff also mentioned that our day starts the moment we sleep in preparation for the next morning. c) Exercise - Yeah I know, this part is sometimes not easy but hey, a 30 minute jog a day could be useful. Or upon waking up, we can do push ups and seat ups. Exercise is a very good way of releasing the stress, I have experienced a lot of this before and it is genuine, just sweat out the stress.

3. Clarify my perspective - We should be reminded by this phrase: "God is God and I am not!". Indeed he is above all and He has his own ways that we can't understand but when it comes, the clarity of it will be revealed to us. a) God can work through the Unspectacular - God is still at work even without that "dramatic" effect and that He has His plans, He is always at work for our own good b) God is in full control in all circumstances - The words say it all, let go and let God.